Police Log

Posted
Thursday, November 1, 2012 1:00 pm

The Police Log is a digest of reports filed by the Warwick Police.<$>

DUI AND REFUSAL

Officer Melissa Schlitzer reported she was dispatched to the Shell gas station at 2025 Post Road for a possible drunk driver around 12:35 a.m. on Oct. 22. She said an attendant there told her a car pulled up to the gas pump, the driver got out, fell down, got up and staggered to the “Stop” sign and urinated on the post before he staggered back to the car, got in and started beeping his horn in an attempt to have the attendant come to the car. She said the car was idling with its brake and reverse lights on and that the attendant told her it had been there for 20 minutes. She said she spoke with the man and he told her he was waiting for his brother, who was inside the store. She said she asked how long he was waiting for his brother and he said, “No, it’s not my brother, it’s my friend,” and after that said, “Oh, I’m not waiting for anyone. I was just waiting and sitting here.” Schlitzer said she gave the driver a field sobriety test but stopped the test when she saw he had to be held up to prevent him from falling. She said he did not perform the breath test properly but still blew a .142 and a .127. She said he also told her he was getting substance abuse treatment but refused to say what other drugs, if any, he had used earlier. Christopher A. Montella, 23, of 33 Derby Lane in Cranston was charged with DUI and later released to a sober adult. Officer Hovsep Sarkisian reported he pulled a car over that was operating erratically on Post Road around 1:20 a.m. on Oct. 26. He said he approached the car and saw the woman who was driving quickly chewing a granola bar. He said she began to cry when he asked her for her car’s paperwork and, when she was through chewing, he noticed that her speech was slurred and she smelled of alcohol. He said she refused to complete the one-leg stand and said, “Just lock me up. You’re going to ruin my life anyway.” He said the driver was taken to headquarters where she refused to take a breath test. Maryanne Johnson, 55, of 13 Sheldon St. in West Warwick was charged with driving on a suspended license, driving an unregistered car, laned roadway violations, DUI and refusal.Officer John Curley said he was on patrol around 6:25 p.m. on Oct. 17 when he saw a car very slowly traveling east on Oakland Beach Avenue with no headlights on. He said he conducted a traffic stop at Oakie’s convenience store and noticed that the driver smelled moderately of alcohol and appeared to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs. He said the man admitted he had a few beers and had taken two extra-strength vicodin pills for an injury about one hour before. He said the driver failed a field sobriety test and was arrested on suspicion of DUI. He said the driver took a preliminary test on the portable breath analyzer and blew a .09 blood alcohol content. He said the driver was taken to Kent Hospital where he refused to submit to a blood test. Curtis A. Gatlin, 42, of 139 West Clifford St. in Providence, was charged with DUI, refusal and driving on a suspended license and later released to a sober adult.Officer John Curley reported an accident near Post Road and Elmwood Avenue around 8:20 p.m. on Oct. 24. He said he asked one of the drivers what happened and she said the other car got in her way. Curley noted that it had already been established that the other vehicle was properly stopped at the red light when it was hit in the rear. Another officer called a tow truck for the second car because it was too damaged to drive. Curley said the driver of the car behind appeared to be intoxicated and almost fell over several times after she got out of her car. He said she smelled strongly of alcohol and accused him of trying to trap her when he asked if she was drinking or taking drugs. He said he stopped the field sobriety test after the driver started hopping on one leg and he feared she would fall. He said he arrested Tara Briere, 26, of 36 Alton Ave. in Cumberland and took her to headquarters where she refused to take a breath test. She was charged with DUI and refusal and later released with a summons.

SMASHING PUMPKINS

Officer Joseph DeDonato reported malicious damage to a vehicle on Lansdowne Road on Oct. 27. The owner of the car told DeDonato she came out of her house around 8:30 a.m. and saw that the windshield of her car was smashed. DeDonato said he found the remnants of a pumpkin and seeds on the windshield and hood of the car. DeDonato noted that this was one of several vandalisms involving pumpkins he reported within several days in the north end of the city. No suspects or witnesses.DeDonato reported a pumpkin incident the day before on Columbia Avenue. A resident of that street told him he came out around 6:30 a.m. and saw a pumpkin in several pieces on the ground near the rear of his Jeep Laredo and a dent at the rear of the vehicle. No witnesses or suspects.Around 11 a.m. the same day, DeDonato went to Winthrop Road to take another pumpkin damage report. This time, the owner of a pickup truck said he came out that morning and found that someone had thrown a pumpkin at the tailgate of his truck sometime overnight and he found the smashed pumpkin on the ground and a dent in the truck’s tailgate. No suspects or witnesses.Officer Damien Andrews reported a pumpkin smashing on Sand Pond Road on Oct. 25. This time, the victim said he was watching television around 10:45 p.m. when he heard a loud sound outside his house. He told Andrews he ran outside and saw a smashed pumpkin stuck to the left rear quarters of his car. He said he saw a late model Dodge Stratus or Ford Contour drive off and he jumped into his own car and chased it and thought they would stop and get out of the car but they did not. He said he tried to get the plate number with no success.A number of similar incidents have been reported within the last couple of weeks. No suspects or witnesses have been found.

STRIPPED DOWN

Officer Jacob Elderkin reported he was dispatched to Warwick Industrial Drive around 10:15 p.m. on Oct. 28 for a report of a car being vandalized. The owner told Elderkin he had been out of town on a business trip since Sept. 25 and came back that night to find that his car had been broken into and parts of it stripped. He said the two front seats, the radiator, the battery, the headlight bulbs and the parking lights were gone and the ignition switch and the steering column had been damaged. There were no witnesses or suspects and the man reported the total cost of the parts and damage was over $1,080.

SHOPPING CART ERRORS

A Cranston woman told police she had been shopping at the Wal-Mart on Post Road around 3 p.m. and returned to it after that and put her child in the safety seat and drove to the Shell station at Elmwood and Post for gas before she realized she didn’t have her purse and realized she left it in the shopping cart in the parking lot. She said she immediately returned to the store but found that the purse was gone. She told police there was $40 in cash and a credit and debit card, along with her driver’s license, Social Security card, her daughter’s Social Security card and her cell phone in the purse. Officer Stephen Major said he got a DVD of the surveillance video but the images on it were too grainy to be of value. He forwarded the report to detectives.A Warwick woman told Officer Brian Chianese a similar story at the Stop & Shop in Meadowbrook. She said she was shopping with her 2-year-old daughter and left her wallet and cell phone in the cart and later realized it was gone. She said she had her driver’s license, several other IDs and various credit cards and about $100 in cash in the wallet. She said there was a tracking device on the phone but it only worked when the phone was on. No suspects or witnesses in either case.